Thursday, November 27, 2008

Princeton Scientists Discover Proteins that Control Evolution

An article you absolutely must read. Here are some excerpts:

"Princeton scientists investigating a group of proteins that help cells burn energy stumbled across evidence that this is not how evolution works."

"proteins were correcting any imbalance imposed on them through artificial mutations, constantly restoring the chain to working order. A mathematical analysis revealed that these proteins seem to make these minute corrections all the time, steering organisms toward evolutionary changes that make the creature fitter."

"Their work seems to confirm ideas held by Darwin's colleague Alfred Wallace, who co-discovered the theory of evolution."

http://io9.com/5083673/princeton-scientists-discover-proteins-that-control-evolution

Monday, November 24, 2008

Dreams and the Rules of Reality

There are an awful lot of people out there who believe their dreams have meanings. Here's what dreams are: Brain chemistry.

Your brain produces chemicals that allow you to interpret and recognize the things you see every day. You respond to stimuli with a combination of various emotions.

The parts of your brain that didn't fire synaptic neurotransmitters while you awake still need to do so.

During sleep, your body normally becomes mildly paralyzed so you don't flail around. There are many non-obstructive sleep disorders that involve the inability to be still while you sleep (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_disorder)

Then the odd chemistry released triggers emotional responses to stimuli that does not exist. It's still interpreted as stimuli so you think you are actually doing things.

The things you experience in dreams are often physically impossible or utterly absurd because the chemicals released during the day do so at the mercy of the rules of reality, but at night, any combination of chemistry is released.

Like cartoon characters versus characters photographed or filmed, the rules of reality do not apply to dreams. You get to fly, time has no meaning, people who should be thousands of miles apart are together, and so on.

Dreams can be interpreted to the degree that persistence of a particular emotion while dreaming can lead to an area of the brain that is having difficulty due to a tumor, clot, aneurysm or other illness.

I often have dreams of being in a huge house that has rooms, stairs, hallways, and even landscaping from several different homes that I actually visited.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Authority and the Supernatural

Ghosts, If you believe in ghosts, you have simply made anthropomorphic attributions to your optical illusions or hallucinations.

Unexplainable phenomena usually turn out to be caused by pets turning over trash cans, forgetting to do things and thinking you did those things, or doing things and not thinking about them only to find to your surprise that things were done or undone.

Other inexplicable events occur as a result of optical, auditory, or olfactory illusions or hallucinations. When I have free time I'd like to research the boundaries between illusions and hallucinations in the field of vision.

Illusions are created by the limitations and fallibility of our physical perception structure, while hallucinations are the product of incoming stimulus and our cognitive construct whether that be neurological development or conditioning and learning, but usually a combination.

If the authorities can't directly use the threat of "believe or die," they can use junk science and speculation that lends credence to the supernatural.

Faked photographs of ghosts, photographs with optical illusions in them that easily mislead the gullible and videotape of an aircraft or military aerial flairs are some of the culprits that mislead a very large constituency of fools.

As a veteran I've been in combat training exercises and taught to recognize things hurtling through the air, even at night. But, I also learned astronomy growing up, and I had to explain to some of my shipmates standing lookout, that the U.F.O. they thought they were seeing was actually the planet Venus.

On television years later, I saw videotape of aerial flairs that were accidentally launched over a town in Arizona or New Mexico, and the narrator expressing shock and fear, speculating about alien aircraft.

Magic is the best way to keep people somewhat fearful of the world around them, and even more terrified of the unknown.

I keep saying "the authorities," in this case I'm talking about those who are capable of broadcasting deceptive messages to millions of viewers and/or listeners. As long as there are people who insist they had experiences with ghosts, they can still be influenced by religious or spiritual authority of some kind.

People have related to me in the past that they and at least one other witness experienced some sort of ghostly phenomenon. The witness is usually someone who won't disagree, but will play along to maintain a friendship. Or they could be organizations who wish to gather together and profit from hallucinators.

People should be ashamed of themselves for playing along and contributing to the perpetuity of someone's hallucinations. To that end, so too should be ashamed, the Unitarians and the Bahai.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Marriage Part II: Double Standard



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PokR1GQ0zJo

Also consider the role marriage plays triggering this kind of behavior.